stairs
by sierrafoxtrot
Summary: Writen for the "Girls of Harry Potter" challenge on HPFC. Ravenclaws equal love :  Rated for language, as usual :P R


**_A/N: Written for the "Girls of Harry Potter" challenge on HPFC. And yes, I do normally ship Mike/Padma, but Terry's cool too :)_**

~~x~~

**Stairs**

The stairs had decided to move. It turned out that, to Padma's surprise, they led somewhere different when Death Eaters were running the school. Terry, who was standing with her when the staircase had moved with a creak, swore loudly, then hit his hand on the banister and swore again as the pain shot through his arm.

"Oh, fuck…" he moaned, clutching his arm.

"You are an idiot," she said decisively, pulling him off the traitorous staircase and onto the seventh floor corridor.

"Why, thank you," he answered sarcastically, sinking down against the wall. "Shall we skip Dark Arts?"

The Ravenclaw in her hesitated at the thought of skipping classes (especially _that_ class), but the teenage girl that came out of her heart occasionally joined the butterflies in her stomach and did a burst of breakdancing at the thought of spending more time with Terry Boot.

"Fine," Padma said, cursing the breakdancing butterflies as she sat next to him. "Fine. But we are _so_ getting a detention."

Terry shrugged. "How many have we had already? There's not much more they can do to us, is there."

This was true. The Carrows- the two Death Eaters who, along with Snape, had taken control of the school- had used the Cruciatus curse liberally in the first term. They had then discovered that this was a disadvantage as the students almost became used to the extreme pain, and some elder ones began to resist.

The use of whippings and cutting charms had been utilised, and Terry Boot had suffered both, once for helping his best friend Michael Corner hex Draco Malfoy, and once for smart-mouthing Professor Carrow himself. The scar still lanced across his cheek and Padma's eyes were drawn to it occasionally when she looked at him, which was often.

His hair was blond and when it fell into his eyes, which was also often, her stomach lurched in a manner that was so pathetic she tried to ignore it. His deep blue eyes were framed by thin wire framed glasses that slid down his nose occasionally, and she constantly wanted to push them up.

Terry stretched, pushing up his glasses absentmindedly with one finger as he extended his long legs out in front of him with a sigh. He seemed to have got over the pain in his hand, and there was a brief moment of silence before he spoke (he never could bear silence).

"This is awkward…"

Padma laughed, running one hand through her hair, realising as she did so that she had picked up that habit from Mike himself; she really was spending too much time with those boys, she thought. "Well done for breaking the ice."

"I try," he retorted.

She yawned and relaxed slightly, reaching for her satchel, aiming to use the time to catch up on some homework that she had been skipping for DA meetings. To her surprise, Terry's hand shot put and caught hers. Their eyes met and he flushed slightly (the unconquerable Terry Boot; blushing!), retracting the hand that had burnt an imprint of itself onto hers (well, not really, but it felt like it).

"Sorry." He muttered awkwardly, and she grinned self-consciously.

"It's fine,"

"It's just-" he hesitated; her breath caught. "You shouldn't do work." He gives his trademark smirk, although she can tell that it took effort. "We could walk."

"Walk?" she echoes.

"Yeah. Walk. You know, Patil, move one foot in front of the other, it propels you along. Basic stuff, you really should know it."

"Oh, shut up," Padma said, blushing and smacking him gently on the arm. He stood and extending his hand and she took it, pulling herself up. They ended up quite close together and he blushed again (twice in two minutes; on a roll, she thought). She took a step back, feeling rather dizzy and he caught her around the waist just when she thought she was going to fall.

"Are you alright?" Terry asked, and she nodded, breathless for a second as she realised that his face was close enough that she could count his eyelashes. "Right. It's just, you looked a bit dizzy…"

"Yeah," she said, "I felt a bit…" she trailed off, looked at him. "You're still holding on to me."

"Oh," Terry didn't let go. "Yeah, I am."

Padma tried to resist grinning; he was still close enough to addle her thoughts slightly, and the butterflies seemed to be having a rave in the base of her stomach, but her resident teenage girl was thrilled. She sounded rather like Parvati. "Are you planning on letting go?"

"Erm…" he smirked; her stomach twisted, "nope…?" His glasses slipped down his nose and she sighed in frustration, reaching out and pushing them back up again. He looked at her in shock- it was her turn to flush, and she murmured something about it being annoying.

Terry kissed her.

It was a spontaneous thing, she realised later, but it felt preordained, obvious that it should happen. Their lips fitted together perfectly and he sighed into her mouth, pulling her closer and winding his fingers through her hair, which came loose from its clip and tumbled down her back in a tidal wave of coal black silk. The desire shot through her like fire in her veins and she whispered his name as he kissed down her neck; she could feel his lips turn upwards in a grin, and she laughed then gasped as he nibbled her ear delicately.

"Terry," she murmured, pushing him away and resting her forehead against his. Terry was still smiling; his eyes were dark blue and they glittered with something that made her butterflies do the conga and her inner teenage girl giggle happily. Actually, _she_ giggled happily.

"Shall we go for that walk?" he asked her, and she smirked, her own eyes twinkling.

"Is that an attempt to trick me into a snogging session, Mr Boot?" Padma enquired cheerfully, and Terry smirked.

"I think the stairs have moved again," was all he said, and they collected their bags and left. He held her hand.

Padma wondered if she should thank the Death Eaters, but she would definitely thank the traitorous staircase.

~~x~~

**_A/N: Reviews are love :)_**


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